Dec 16, 2003 - 12:00 am .- In his Message for World Day of Peace, celebrated each year on January 1st, Pope John Paul II called for a reform of the United Nations in order to prevent the rule of the most powerful. The message, entitled “An Ever Timely Commitment: Teaching Peace,” was made public on Tuesday by Cardinal Renato R. Martino and has been published in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Dec 16, 2003 - 12:00 am .- The Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops (OCCB) is moving full-steam ahead with its campaign in defense of heterosexual marriage. The campaign includes grassroots lobbying of members of Parliament and a request to the Supreme Court of Canada for intervener status in the review process of the government’s same-sex marriage law.

Dec 16, 2003 - 12:00 am .- The campus ministry office of the Archdiocese of Santiago launched a Christmas campaign this week in order to encourage young people to recognize Christ in the city’s poor and to give them “gifts of love.”

Dec 16, 2003 - 12:00 am .- This week the Holy See approved the opening of the cause for beatification of Paul Yun Ji-Chung and 123 companions, who were tortured and killed for their faith in 1791, when Christianity was being introduced in Korea.